Where the Air is Deathly Still

I was lucky enough to be given the chance to listen to an advance copy of 30 Fathom Grave's debut full length album, Transcendence. They are a great new band with a very complex and unique sound. Mixing aspects of industrial, techno, alternative, and grunge, 30 Fathom Grave have developed a sound all their own. You may recall their name from an earlier entry, as they are appearing on The Nurse Who Loved Me: A Tribute to Failure. They are covering Failure's track, "Wet Gravity," and from the sounds of their album, I am very excited to hear it. Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, 30 Fathom Grave formed back in 2004, and are comprised of just two members, Aaron Moya and David Thompson. Despite their small line-up, their sound is quite the opposite. Moya handles the vocals, bass, and majority of programming, while Thompson is responsible for the guitars, theremin, electronics, and most of the abstract noise. For better or worse, the duo produced their album entirely themselves, allowing them to capture the true essence of the band.

Opening with "Eight Arms United," the band sets the atmosphere for the record straight off. The opening sound of ambient noise lasts for just about 10 seconds before the drums and the rest of the music kicks in. Creating a pounding electronic rock similar to Massive Attack or Aphex Twin, the song then goes into a less demanding rhythm when the vocals kick in. The effects are heavy on the vocals, as the distortion drenched fog rolls back in. This time complete with a programmed sound very reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. There is a somewhat clean sounding guitar that cuts into the thickness adding in a great moving texture. Their Failure influence can also be seen as you hear the production form of overlapping layers upon layers creating a dense and heavy sound. Everything trickles out into the clean guitar line as the song approaches its end. "Godkiller" follows with a very trip hop influenced sounding beat and a bass line that would make the song appear a NIN "With Teeth" b-side. The vocals on this track are heavily distorted and wavy. "Something Innocent," starts off with electronic twitches and a great synth heavy sound. A strong trance like melody with one of the clearer sounding vocal approaches on the album, this song moves at a slow tempo until the time changes with programmed beats and noise firing out from the darkness. The track moves back to a simple quiet calm as it ends, leaving "Red Light/Green Light" to begin in the same atmosphere. This track is another example of their creative interpretation of industrial rock from within the darkest depths of space. One of their strengths comes from the quiet to loud dynamics explored, as well as an interesting distorted to clean dynamic. The intensity rises in the razor sharp ending of this song as the layers begin to thicken back to a wall of electronic rock sound.

Everything drops to silence as "Unspoken" begins, with a bouncing electrical rain sound. Slowly 30 Fathom Grave add in textures including deep snare hits, a slow weaving bass line, and vocals that strike me as almost Beck sounding. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, as the fire is fueled, the vocals become completely distorted reminiscent of a more mechanical and industrial sounding Nirvana track. The melody comes back after the feedback filled vocals, and is complimented by some great keyboard accompaniment beneath the mix. "Pie Plates Over Hollywood," comes next and serves as a segue into the next track. The segue, similar to Failure's Fantastic Planet, is a great effect to move the album along while continuing upon a complete sound. "Ad Nauseam" opens with a static rumble and tabla sounding drums that remind me of Tool's more psychedelic offerings. As the blips and static infuse together, a roughly distorted piano accompanies the lyrics at there very cleanest. While still covered in chorus, the lyrics are easily understandable, and sound great. Think Beck's voice with the quirks of the Violent Femmes over a loose NIN backdrop. A great song with an excellent guitar driven floating ambiance. The track crackles out and into, "Turnstile Collision". The crackling stops and is replaced by a driving metal guitar line, similar to early heavy Filter songs. Practically undecipherable distortion covers the lyrics as the intensity rises to screaming. Great mixtures of slow high pitched melodies intertwine with the chugging guitar riffs. Lots of great texturing going on with the different overlapping tracks. The ending rhythmic outburst is heavy, leading into the electronic blips and bleeps to finish the song. "I'm the One" follows with an explosion of sound with overdriven vocal effects leading way into wavy voice modulation and right back into the overdrive. Another good highly industrial track that at times brings to mind Filter's collaboration with Crystal Method, "Trip Like I Do" and at others Marilyn Manson type vocal deliverance.

In my opinion, 30 Fathom Grave finish their album at their best, with two of favorite tracks from the effort. "Where the Air is Deathly Still," serves as another heavily spaced out electronic segue into "Scattered Ashes". This is my personal favorite track on the album. It begins with an almost reggae sounding up stroked guitar picking and drifts along with a cloudy smoke filled sound. Soft, gorgeous, sincere, and somewhat spooky sounding vocals are delivered here by Moya. While far more of a beautiful atmospheric quality than the rest of the album, that's not to say this song is without its intensity. Instead of coming from crushing walls of distortion and guitars, this song has a melodic intensity unseen on the rest of this album. At around four minutes into the track, things start to build as the screeching guitars are turned up in the mix. The distortion begins to solidify over the mix like a blindingly thick fog over the lower end of the sound. 30 Fathom Grave have really created something different and unique in today's rock environment. "Ordinary" comes next and is another personal favorite, with a great display of dynamics. In what appears to be live studio drumming and not programmed beats, the song has a dreamy acoustic clean vocal introduction, then leads into a rapid rhythmic distortion over everything on the track, and then fades back to clean again. They never lose a step as they make these changes, and it creates a great warped reality effect to their sound. The tempo of the song speeds up and ends very abruptly leading into the final track, "Incapacitated". With fast, rapid, heavy programmed drums leading the way, the vocals move along in a drone like melodic fuzz. A good chaotic feeling forms as the sound just disappears in space and time, and the album is over.

30 Fathom Grave have created an epic album with sounds that envision what carnage outer space may contain, and the struggle of man vs. machine. Sonically devastating destruction throughout the disc with great distorted vocals, hard thumping rhythms, and soaring melodies leaves the listener with a truly unique experience. This is the journey through space, being sucked through a black hole, and spit back out on the otherside. While not the most easily accessible album ever made, it is worth the effort. I've listened to it three times throughout my day today, and it is grown on me with every listen. The album will be self released on Feb. 29th, and (I believe) available through all digital music outlets such as itunes, emusic, etc. You can check out some of their music at www.myspace.com/30fathomgrave.

Check out and support this great band!